The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court verdict that declared illegal the parliament membership of Maj (retd) Jasim Uddin, who was elected from Bhola-3 constituency on Awami League nomination.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the ninth parliament has apparently been ineffective till now as it did not meet in the last five months to perform its task of ensuring transparency in government expenditure.

A parliamentary standing committee yesterday asked the authorities concerned to scrap lease of about 27,250 acres of land in three hill districts for violating the lease contract given to 545 organisations and individuals.

Barrister Abdullah-al Mamun, counsel for convicts Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin in Bangabandhu murder case, yesterday claimed before the Supreme Court that Bazlul was innocent and had not been involved in the killings of Bangabandhu and his family members.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of the elite Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran yesterday, killing at least 30 people including top commanders and tribal leaders, a senior official said.

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday submitted final report clearing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and three others of charges in a corruption case saying the charge of misuse of power against them could not be proved.

The High Court (HC) yesterday issued a rule upon the government and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to explain why the proceedings against Tarique Rahman, elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in Zia Orphanage Trust embezzlement case should not be quashed.

A Thakurgaon court yesterday issued an arrest warrant for BNP leader and lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury who made derogatory comments on the killings of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members.

Editorial

THE richness of a nation's heritage come from its cultural depth and diversity. As recent history has shown, countries around the globe are preoccupied in reviving the heritage that has made them what they are today. Indeed, with such international organizations as Unesco taking the lead in preserving cultural sites and promoting as well as retrieving nearly lost specimens of heritage, it is important that we in Bangladesh join the enterprise in the interest of our own cultural past. For Bangladesh is a land of rich cultural diversity and is home not only to Bengali-speaking people but also to people belonging to other cultures. We are speaking here, of course, of the indigenous peoples, the adivasis, inhabiting different areas of the country. The adivasis altogether speak as many as thirty languages. In line with the efforts to revive culture that has been going on worldwide, it is today important that we do all we can to keep our indigenous heritage alive. Some of the adivasi languages, as we understand, are facing extinction.

ALMOST the whole top order of the government of the Maldives was under the sea conducting a cabinet meeting on Saturday. What an exceptional way to highlight to the world the grave threat of global warming that the Maldives face due to the effects of climate change.

NINE is a memorable number close to our heart. After nine months of arms struggle, this nation was liberated in 1971 from the brutal Pakistani forces. The next milestone was crossed in 1991 when the nation was liberated for the second time from the hands of the military-civil autocrats. The third milestone was crossed in January 2009, after a two-year pause in democratic governance, when the nation once again embraced democracy via the 9th parliament.

THE 27-nation bloc of the European Union is indeed uncertain about how to deal with Moscow as a resurgent Russia casts its long shadow over the continent. Hardliners like Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France, with eyes on their dependence on Russia's gas supplies, instinctively reel themselves back from being stringent and are unwilling to let relations with Moscow become too sour.

Sports

Abahani set up an early showdown with bitter rivals Mohammedan Sporting Club after an eventful group stage of the Big Boss Premier T20 League that also offered a surprise package in Khelaghar Samaj Kalyan Samity in the semifinal line-up of the season's curtain-riser.

Title contenders Abahani oozed class in a spirited come from behind win to reach the final of the Citycell Federation Cup with a comfortable 4-1 win over newcomers Beanibazar SC in the semifinal at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Bolstered by success in the fourth edition of Asian Archery Grand Prix in India, hosts Bangladesh dream of clinching at least two gold medals in the fifth edition of the tournament which gets underway at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan in Savar tomorrow.

On a pitch that offered bounce and some movement, Stuart Clark led a disciplined bowling performance to restrict Somerset to a below-par 111 which New South Wales knocked off without breaking a sweat in at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday. With this crushing win NSW have joined their Australian counterparts Victoria in the Champions League semifinals.

From now on B. League, the professional football league of the country, will be called as the Bangladesh League as Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has approved the new name to avoid confusion over the term 'B' abroad.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has said Brendon McCullum will continue as an opener for the ODI series against Pakistan because Jesse Ryder's absence due to injury meant the opening line-up was already a little shaky.

Bordeaux's hopes of landing a second successive French title suffered a blow on Saturday when they slid to a surprise loss at Auxerre, while the side they deposed as champions, Lyon, went down at home to Sochaux.

Zimbabwe won the battle of the bats in Harare to take the series after going up 3-1 against Kenya in the fourth one-day international on Saturday. The series win was their second over the same opposition this year. Zimbabwe were boosted by a collective batting display, with each of their top five batsmen making important contributions, as they chased down a challenging target with ease. Three of their batsmen -- Mark Vermeulen, Forster Mutizwa and Brendan Taylor -- struck half-centuries to see them home by six wickets with two overs to spare.

Twenty20 matches are usually pulsating, high-octane affairs, and this one lived up to that billing. A Diwali that began with a bomb scare ended in fireworks as Royal Challengers Bangalore, having been eliminated before they took the field, took Delhi Daredevils down with them.

FM Syed Mizanur Rahman Emon of Air Destiny enjoyed solo lead with six points after the sixth round matches of the Pexatech Open International Rating Chess Tournament at the chess federation hall room yesterday. FM Mohammad Abdul Malek and Dewan Md. Riad were jointly in second position with five and a half points. Thirteen players were in third position with five points each. The matches of the seventh round will be held at the same venue today from 3:30 pm.

The Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), the country's first and largest EPZ, is now under automated systems to issue all sorts of import permissions (IP), export permissions (EP) and sub-contracts.

With a combined economy bigger than India or South Korea and a total population of over half a billion people, Asean has the potential to become an economic force that could rival China, India, Brazil and Russia.

Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) said on Saturday it has bought Tigo Sri Lanka, a unit of Millicom International Cellular, for 207 million dollars amid growth opportunities in the southeast Asian country.

Bangladesh spends a meagre amount on social safety net programmes to alleviate poverty, and this too meagre amount also does not reach the hardcore poor as there is no accountability in its distribution process, said the speakers at a seminar yesterday.

Police and DU authorities in a joint raid at an admission consultancy firm at Farmgate in the city yesterday seized several hundred fake admission forms of Dhaka University (DU) worth around Tk 84,000 and arrested four persons in this connection.

Speakers at a roundtable yesterday said easy availability and consumption of spurious, sub-standard and unregistered drugs pose a major threat to the public health in the country, which have flooded the entire drug market.

Speakers at a discussion yesterday said the prevalence of non-communicable diseases has been increasing in the society with the growing number of elderly people following a change in lifestyle and food habit and the reduction of infectious diseases.

Speakers at a consultation workshop said WatSan services are yet to reach vast areas of Bangladesh due to its geological and geographical location, communication system, technological, socio-economic condition and risk of natural disasters.

The teachers and employees of different non-government schools and colleges at a view exchange meeting yesterday said the draft National Education Policy should be implemented gradually as it would be difficult to implement at a time.

The authorities of LP Gas Ltd, one of the two bottling plants of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), have been compelled to run the plant for only 6-7 days a month, due to drastic fall in supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), from Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL), another sate-run company.

A man was killed and two others were injured in boiler explosion at Domdoma Bazaar in Ullapara upazila yesterday morning. The deceased, Modina Pramanik, 40, was son of Mofazzal Hossain Pramanik of Chardomdoma village. Police and local sources said, Modina and his two associates Hossain Ali and Monsur Ali received serious burn injuries as the boiler of a rice mill owned by Shahidul Islam exploded with a huge bang at around 6:30 am. The three had been working at the rice mill as labourers for long. The injured were shifted to Sirajganj Sadar Hospital in a critical condition where Modina succumbed to his injuries after a few minutes after admission. Condition of others is stated to be critical.

Two children drowned in a pond of their house at Dakkhin Shom village in Kaliganj upazila on Saturday. They were Fazle Rabbi, 2, son of Mostafizur Rahman and Punno, 2, son of Parvez Bhuiyan. Family sources said, Rabbi and Punno were playing together near the pond in the afternoon and at one stage they fell into water and drowned. After a hectic search their floating bodies were recovered from the pond in the evening.

A housewife was electrocuted at Daripara village in Sadar upazila Saturday morning. Family sources said Sabuja Begum, 40, came in contact of a live wire of an irrigation pump when she was collecting vegetables at a field. She died on the spot. On information, police recovered the body and sent it to hospital morgue for autopsy. An unnatural death (UD) case was filed.

Criminals hacked a young man to death at Karimpur village under Sadar upazila Saturday night. Victim Alamgir, 28, was son of Afsar Ali of the village. Police and family sources said, Alamgir went out after dinner on Saturday night but did not return home. The next day locals found his body lying in a field in the afternoon. Contacted, officer in-charge (OC) of Jhenidah Sadar police station said, Alamgir's murder might be linked to killing of Channu of the same village in 2007.

At least 15 people were injured, six seriously as a trawler and a sand laden boat collided in Kheyaghat point of the Sitalakkhya River on Saturday. Witnesses said, the accident occurred at around 6:30 pm when the boat hit the Bandar upazila bound trawler boarded by about 60 passengers. The seriously injured were identified as Rafique, Ansar, Parvez, Alamgir, Sabuj and Rahima. They were rushed to Narayanganj General Hospital where condition of Rahima was stated to be critical. Most of the passengers of the trawler managed to swim ashore while others were rescued by nearby trawlers.

Police yesterday morning recovered the body of a young man at Maddhya Chuarykhola village in Kaliganj upazila. Locals found the body of the unidentified man aged about 30, and informed police. Later, police recovered the body at about 10:00am and sent it to Sadar hospital morgue for autopsy. Police suspect the assailants shot the man dead elsewhere and left the body at the village.

Five people including a railway security guard were injured in a clash between government railway police (GRP) and smugglers yesterday morning at Natore railway station. Police and witnesses said, police held Badu Miah, son of Taslim Uddin of Chawk Baiddyanath area in Natore town while he was carrying smuggled goods by Barendra Express. When the train reached Natore station, an organised gang of armed smugglers attacked the train and started beating railway security guard Sajedur. It sparked a clash between GRP men and smugglers. As GRP police retreated, the smugglers snatched smuggler Badu from them and also took away the goods brought from Hili. Five people including railway security guard Sajedur and smuggler Badu were injured during the incident.

A gang of robbers looted cash and valuables valued at Tk. 5 lakh from a house at village Mahini in Nangolkot upazila yesterday. Sources said, about 10 to 12 armed robbers entered the house of Manu Mia at about 4:30 am. The gang first identified themselves as member of detective branch (DB) of police and asked the family members to open the door. As the inmates did not comply, they broke open the door and stormed into the house. The masked robbers beat up inmate Aleya Begum before looting Tk 1 lakh and eight tolas of gold ornaments, TV set, tape recorder, digital camera, mobile phone and other goods.

Letters

Defeat, Disgrace and Dictatorship are inevitable companions of the Pakistan Army despite its possession of a few nuclear crackers. The 24 hour-long, not unexpected, Mumbai-style hostage taking suicidal attack by the Islamist militants inside Pakistan's political and Military Headquarters (GHQ) at Rawalpindi once again exposed the myth of the Pakistan Army, the capability of Pakistani Talibans and grave concerns over Pakistan's nuclear arsenals. Shock, fear and panic gripped the whole country. No one, no place in Pakistan is safe from the militants now. In fact in the last 2/3 years, on several occasions the militants attacked the GHQ, all big cantonments, Air force and Navy Headquarters (HQ) and bases, commando, paramilitary and police HQs and barracks and killed/injured a number of generals and ministers including Benazir Bhutto. The Pakistan Army is the architect as well as the victim of the Islamist militancy.

Child labour nowadays is not accepted in any civilised society. But child domestic service is a widespread practice in Bangladesh. The majority of child domestics tend to be 12 to 17 years old. But children as young as 5 or 6 years old can also be found working. A survey of child domestic workers found that 38 percent were 11 to 13 years old and nearly 24 percent were 5 to 10 years old. Child domestics work long hours, getting up well before their employers and going to bed long after them. On an average 50 percent domestic workers work 12- 14 hours a day.

The article 'Biodiversity in Peril' (DS 10 Oct 2009) by Mr. Md. Asadullah Khan is a reminder of atrocities the humans are doing on the fellow living things with which we share the planet. The precarious state of biodiversity is recognized globally and Bangladesh is no different. The writing could have been more educational to our Bangladeshi bureaucrats and businessmen had examples from Bangladesh been used in the discussion.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama is arguably one of the most absurd awards that the Nobel committee has ever made. Highly patronizing it will be received with incredulity around the world. In fact there's rarely been an award that has been so obviously partisan and political in its intention.

Everyone knows that Bangladesh is a poor country. The government has to beg and borrow from other countries every year to meet the "deficit" of our budget. Day by day the expenses are going up and the govt. has failed to keep control on the expenses.

It is very sad that in Bangladesh the "Postal Service" is extremely poor. We have a very large population who are deprived of the postal services. The service available is very inefficient and inadequate. There is ample opportunity to improve the services but no one ever really tried to look into this matter. Therefore it is suggested that the govt take the following measures.

It is great news that US President Barack Obama has been awarded Nobel Prize. Though it is very early, there is no denying the fact that he really deserved this prize. This achievement would definitely encourage him to take more fruitful steps in establishing peace all over the world. The shining eyes of Obama who is also a follower of Mahatma Gandhi raise hope in the hearts of millions.

About two months ago, the prime minister of Bangladesh issued an order to advance every clock in the country by one hour, in order to make more use of daylight. But where is all the saved electricity? They are definitely not in the houses of the average citizen, for load shedding is still going on unabated!

How many people in Bangladesh smoke, or have raw tobacco with beetle leaves, as their everyday item to satisfy themselves, is unknown to me, but lately I have learned from a television advertisement that each year, at least 57,000 Bangladeshis are dying every year due to smoking. Still there is no information about the death of raw tobacco users.

The immense sufferings of the admission seekers of Dhaka University provoked me to write this piece. The undisciplined and haphazard queue under the sun for long hours really reminded us that Dhaka University is backward in information technology. A couple of days earlier we had witnessed that a public university demonstrated submission of admission form by the students through SMS.

International

Though Pakistan has announced an all out offensive, a 'mother of all battles', against the Taliban in South Waziristan, local residents see the offensive as futile as they believe many Taliban have slipped away into other neighbouring areas.

Statements of key witnesses in the Mumbai attack case in an anti-terror court in Mumbai will be forwarded by India to Pakistan to be used as evidence in the trial there, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said in Mumbai yesterday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his top challenger Abdullah Abdullah have agreed to "work together" for a possible runoff vote to end the deadlock on the controversial general elections.

John Kerry, an influential US senator, has cautioned President Barack Obama against raising troop levels in Afghanistan, saying it would be 'entirely irresponsible' to do so while the Afghan government remains in turmoil following national elections.

A Sri Lankan editor was arrested for reporting on an alleged rift between a senior military commander and the government after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, police and his newspaper said yesterday.

Arts & Entertainment

On October 17 evening, a cultural programme titled 'Alokito Shondha' was held at Winter Garden, Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. The event was made memorable thanks to performances by renowned artistes Andrew Kishore, Farida Parveen and Kanakchapa. Former 'Close-Up 1' contestant Rafat and Shoron, Uday from 'Khude Gaanraj' were there as well. Gram Bikash Shohayok Shongstha (an NGO) organised the event for Shondipon (a school that works with differently-abled children.

A group art exhibition, titled “Ultimate Destination,” featuring the works of Lubna Habib, Ranjit Kumar Sarkar and Syed Ahmad Saber, is now on display at Nalinikanta Bhattashali Gallery of National Museum. The displayed works mainly focus on our Bengali folk life, nature, human emotions, hopes and woes.

Bangladesh Loko Sangeet Parishad (BLSP) held a programme featuring Lalon songs at Shawkat Osman Memorial Auditorium of Central Public Library, Shabagh on October 17. The event was organised on the occasion of Lalon's 119th death anniversary.

The Bangladesh Shishu Academy of Dinajpur unit recently organised a 'Moushumi Competition' for school going children of the district. Hundreds of enthusiastic children from 13 upazilas of the district participated in the event.

Gonoshilpi Shangstha, Pabna, a leading cultural organisation of the district, celebrated its 26th anniversary last Friday. A discussion and cultural programme were held at the organisation's premises, where speakers focused on the organisation's objectives.